Guy Moon, ‘Fairly OddParents’ And ‘Danny Phantom’ Composer And Long-Time Butch Hartman Collaborator, Dies At 63

Emmy-nominated and Annie-winning composer Guy Moon, whose credits spanned generations of popular TV programs, most notably Nickelodeon’s The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom, was killed last week in a traffic collision, according to a statement released by his family. He was 63.

“We are overcome with grief to announce the passing of our beloved patriarch, Guy Moon,” the Moon family wrote on Moon’s Facebook page. “He has left an unmistakable legacy, and will be profoundly missed by us, his family, and countless others whose lives he impacted.” A celebration of his life is planned for his birthday, February 7, in the Los Angeles area, with a second memorial to follow in his hometown in Wisconsin.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Moon began playing piano at five years old, taught by his father, who played boogie-woogie on the family piano, and later through classical instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Music, he said, quickly became not just an interest but a compulsion.

“I just asked him to show me how he was doing it, and he showed me and I started playing,” Moon recalled of his father during a 2020 appearance on Butch Hartman’s Speech Bubble podcast. “And that was the beginning of my infatuation with music.”

By junior high and high school, Moon was performing in rock bands, first in a group called Thursday Morning, named because they rehearsed before school, and later in a more serious outfit called Bach’s. He played keyboards, sang, and, he joked, “grabbed any instrument possible.”

Moon later studied music at the University of Arizona. There, he gained early experience recording and producing a wide range of styles in a professional-grade studio in the school’s basement. In the mid-90s, after college, he moved to Los Angeles, supporting himself through freelance work and studio jobs while his wife, Jennifer, worked as a bookkeeper.

Those early years were lean but formative, and Moon looked back on them fondly. “For seven years, I said yes to everything,” Moon said. “Any musical opportunity.”

His willingness to seize any opportunity paid off when a demo he assembled reached Hanna-Barbera music supervisor Bode Chandler. Though unrefined, Chandler heard promise in Moon’s work and gave him a chance, eventually leading to Moon’s first animation assignments and his career-defining collaborations with Butch Hartman, beginning with a Johnny Bravo short in 1995.

From there, Moon and Hartman became inseparable. In 2001, The Fairly OddParents first hit the airwaves, and Moon would go on to score every episode of the series for more than two decades. He was responsible for thousands of minutes of music and more than 100 original songs. He also wrote and produced the music for Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and Bunsen Is a Beast, as well as all three Fairly OddParents live-action features.

Among his most famous compositions was “My Shiny Teeth and Me,” the Chip Skylark pop parody that became a fondly remembered favorite of a generation of fans. Hartman wrote the lyrics, with Moon adapting them into fully realized songs.

“He would just instantly get it,” Hartman recalled on Speech Bubble. “I’d say, ‘Can we do something like a salsa beat with a trumpet?’ and he’d be like, ‘Yep, no problem.’ And it would just show up.”

More than just a hit with young fans, Moon’s work was repeatedly honored by his colleagues in the animation industry. He received multiple Daytime Emmy and Annie nominations, winning one of the latter for Best Music in an Animated Television Production for The Fairly OddParents in 2010.

Other standout animation credits include memorable titles such as Cow and Chicken, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy,  The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, 2 Stupid Dogs, and more.

Outside of animation, his work was wildly diverse. His work appeared in live-action titles including The Brady Bunch Movie, A Very Brady Sequel, and he was credited with contributing to soundtracks for big-budget Hollywood films including Minority Report, Fight Club, Mystic Pizza, and Black Night.

His ability to adapt to the needs of a production was key to Moon’s functionality on so many kinds of titles. “You really need to serve the story in whatever way the producer wants,” he explained. “If something’s happening on camera, the music should go right along with it.”

Away from the studio, Moon was a devoted husband and father of three. His children, Dusty, Chelsea, and Savannah, all inherited the music bug from their dad. Dusty co-composed the boy-band musical feature Big Time Rush with Moon, while all three kids appeared at times during Fairly OddParents musical recordings when they were young. According to Moon, the three provided voices heard at the beginning of “Icky Vicky.”

Moon was also a dedicated supporter of Hartman’s Hartman House foundation and traveled with his family to Haiti to help with charitable work there.

Moon is survived by his wife, Jennifer; his children, Dusty, Chelsea, and Savannah; and a grandchild.

The Moon family said details of the upcoming memorial services will be announced soon.